You are so locked in your 90’s worldview that you fail to see the glue that binds these countries. The Swift model has pushed Brics into rapid membership expansion. No one trusts the EU who still has not given up on stealing Russian’s 300B. The entire world has seen EU INTENT and they have banded together against the EUro and USD.
Nope, it’s not a 90s view. If it was a 90s view with Yeltsin in power the former Eastern bloc countries saw hope that the Russian federation would end its imperialist mindset. But that ended with Putin.
Eastern bloc countries have no glue either Muscowy.
No one trusts Moscow.